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TRINITY



Three Persons in One God.  How in the world can anyone explain that?  The answer is that we in this world cannot.   It is a mystery beyond our comprehension.  How can there be three separate persons- The Father, The Son, and The Holy SPIRIT- but yet still all be the same God?  This is truly a question that we take on faith as Catholics, because our limited human brains simply cannot understand it.  And while we cannot fathom this mystery, as Catholics we know and love this fact of three
persons in one God.  And by the way, the word "Trinity" does not appear in the Bible.  Some of our protestant (one who protests against the Catholic Church) brothers and sisters use this strategy against Catholics concerning the word "purgatory", another word which doesn't appear in the Bible, but yet, the doctrine is.  This doctrine of the Trinity was formulated over time, which fulfills the words of Jesus in
John 16:12-13: "I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come." 


In 382 AD, Pope Damasus I, at the Council of Rome (the Council where the Canon of the Bible was first established), declared the following:
"If anyone denies that the Father is eternal, that the Son is eternal, and that the Holy Spirit is eternal: he is a heretic. If anyone says that the Son made flesh was not in heaven with the Father while He was on earth: he is a heretic. If anyone denies that the Holy Spirit has all power and knows all things, and is everywhere, just as the Father and the Son: he is a heretic." 

During the Eleventh Synod of Toledo in Spain (675 AD), the Holy Catholic Church declared the following:
"We confess and we believe that the holy and indescribable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one only God in His nature, a single substance, a single nature, a single majesty and power. We acknowledge Trinity in the distinction of persons; we profess Unity because of the nature or substance. The three are one, as a nature, that is, not as person. Nevertheless, these three persons are not to be considered separable, since we believe that no one of them existed or at any time effected anything before the other, after the other, or without the other."

Notice that people didn't "search the scriptures" on their own here. Rather, it took many years and several church councils to establish this doctrine. 
 
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 says:
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD; and you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might."
These verses come right out and say that our God is one, as well as giving us a glimpse of the great Commandment that Jesus gave us in Matthew 22:37.


EXPLANATION
If we take a look at our self, each human is made up of a mind, a body, and a soul, and yet we are still only one person.  

A fire has flames, heat, and light, but yet it is still just one fire. 

When you hear a person's speech, you are hearing three things - his words, his thoughts, and his voice. 

When you strum one chord on a guitar, it is made up of 3 separate notes, all equal to each other. 

 Everything in nature is in 3 dimensions - length, width, and height (coincidence?). 

For instance, where Jesus is present, the Father and Holy Spirit are also present, because they are one.  



Where the Father is present, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also present simultaneously.  



Where the Holy Spirit is present, the Father and Jesus are also present in one person (This constant three-in-one presence is called "circumincession".) This means that when we receive the Eucharist at Mass, which is truly the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ, we are also receiving The Father and The Holy Spirit, because they are one. 


When we are Confirmed and receive the Holy Spirit, we are also receiving the Father and Jesus as well.  

We know that Jesus Christ is physically present in every Tabernacle in every Catholic Church in the world, which means that The Father and The Holy Spirit are as well.  This is very significant, because the Father and Jesus and the Holy Spirit also dwell in heaven at the same time, so the Tabernacle is a kind of gateway to heaven for the world, because of the Divine Presence that lives there every hour of every day of every month of every year. 
 



And while these examples help to explain the concept of three in one, The Holy Trinity is so much more.  






And that is why it is so important to attend Mass and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as often as possible, because you are accessing heaven when you do!  How many people walk into church and never genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament? How many people never go to confession to get absolution for their mortal sins before receiving the blessed Trinity on their tongue?  How many people talk and visit before Mass like they are waiting for the curtain to go up in a theater, instead of praying and showing reverence for the Divine Presence?  How many Masses are said with hardly any reverence and respect for the Holy Trinity dwelling in the Tabernacle?  Way too many.   If the Pope were to come to our church, we would all be beating down the door to get a good seat to see, hear, and maybe even shake his hand;  but how many of us regularly attend Eucharistic Adoration so that we can adore Jesus Christ and the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Eucharist?  A minuscule percentage of those of us who would go and see the Pope, that's for sure.
 

 
To try and grasp the Trinity, first understand that God the Father the Son and Holy Spirit are Spirit, light, awesomeness, power, justice and love -- and He in no way conforms to a human's understanding.  Jesus told us God is Spirit.  Shine two beams of light on the same spot, and you have the light of one, separate, yet also the same as the others.  An example of Jesus' light and the Father's light as the same is at this true Near Death Experience here


Lesson 3: God and the Holy Trinity
"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God!  How incomprehensible are His judgments and how unsearchable His ways!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?  Or who hath first given to Him, and recompense shall be made Him?  For of Him and by Him and in Him, are all things; to Him be glory forever.  Amen."  (Romans 11:33-36)
  1. Who is God?

  2.     God is the Supreme Being, the Creator, "who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all things that are in them."   (Psalm 145:5)
  3. What does "Creator" mean?

  4.     It means that God made all things out of nothing.
    "I beseech thee, my son, look upon Heaven and earth, and all that is in them: and consider that God made them out of nothing, and mankind also."   (2 Machabees 7:28)
  5. What is a creature?

  6.     A creature is anything made by God.
  7. How do you know there is a God?

  8.     If you just examine the things in this world, you have to admit that someone had to make them.
    "But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee: and the birds of the air, and they shall tell thee.  Speak to the earth, and it shall answer thee: and the fishes of the sea shall tell.  Who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord hath made all these things?"  (Job 12:7-9)


    "The fool hath said in his heart:  There is no God."   (Psalm 13:1)
  9. Why can you not see God?

  10.     Because He has no body.
    "God is a spirit."   (John 4:24)
  11. Where is God?

  12.     God is everywhere.
    "Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy face?  If I ascend into heaven, Thou are there: if I descend into hell, Thou art present."    (Psalm 138:7-8)
  13. Can God see all things?

  14.     Yes, because He is everywhere.
    "The eyes of the Lord in every place behold the good and the evil."   (Proverbs 18:3)
  15. How old is God?

  16.     God is ageless, eternal, which means that He had no beginning and will have no end and will never change.
    "Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed: from eternity and to eternity thou art God."   (Psalm 89:2)
  17. Can God do all things?

  18.     Yes, "With God all things are possible."    (Matthew 19:26)
  19. Is God alive?

  20.     Yes, He is alive and is the source of life.   Over 30 Bible references call Him "the living God."
      "All things were made by Him:  and without Him was made nothing that was made.  In Him is life."     (John 1:3-4)
  21. Is God independent and unlimited?

  22.     Yes, He depends on nothing and is unlimited (infinite) in every way.
    "Neither is He served with men's hands, as though he needed any thing; seeing it is He who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things."   (Acts 17:25)
  23. Is God interested in you?

  24.     Yes, and He loves you with an unlimited love.
    "Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet I will not forget thee."   (Isaias 49:15)
  25. Will God forgive you your sins?

  26.     Yes, if you are truly sorry for them.
    "For the Lord your God is merciful, and will not turn away His face from you, if you return to Him."    (2 Paralipomenon 30:9)
  27. What is the Holy Trinity?

  28.     This means that there are three persons in One God.
    "Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."    (Matthew 28:19)
  29. Who are the three persons in God?

  30.     God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.
    "And there are three who give testimony in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.  And these three are one."    (I John 5:7)
  31. Are the three persons of the Holy Trinity equal?

  32.     Yes, they are equal to One Another, but each One is a separate and distinct Person, and each One is God.
  33. How can there be three persons in only one God?

  34.     This is a mystery that no human mind can completely understand.
PRACTICAL POINTS
  1. There are many things in this world which the human mind cannot understand, such as growth, sight, hearing, electricity.  Therefore, we should not be surprised to find that we cannot completely understand the God who made the world.
  2. Faith is accepting something on the word of another.  God says that there are three Persons in One God.  If you accept that statement as being true because He said so, then you have faith.
  3. Faith is not unreasonable if what you are told is possible and if the person telling you is usually truthful and has nothing to gain by telling you a lie.
  4. Human beings can tell lies, but God cannot because He is Truth Itself.  Therefore, believing anything God says is the highest kind of faith.  This kind of faith, however, is a gift that you must pray for.


THE HOLY TRINITY
The bible in the book of Genesis 11:5-9 “Then the LORD came down to see t he city and the tower which those men had built, and he said ‘Now then these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they are going to do, Soon they will be able to do anything they want! LET US GO DOWN AND MIX UP THEIR LANGUAGE SO THAT THEY WILL NOT UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER,’ ‘so the LORD scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. The city was called Babylon because there the LORD mixed up the language of all the people, and from there he scattered them all over the earth”.
 

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